1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a virtualized policy testing for communication networks.
2. Brief Discussion of Related Art
Customers are frequently required to make changes to device configurations in their network arising from customer policy changes, device vendor updates/patches, or customer networking changes. Changes to configurations of a device may affect the operation of other devices that communicate with the device, as well as the operation of the device itself. Sometimes these changes can have an adverse effect on the customer's network, such as operation failures, application failures, inadvertently blocked data packets, and the like. As a result, customers typically wish to test the effects that configuration changes have on the network to ensure that the changes do not have an adverse effect.
In one approach, configuration changes can be tested in a lab environment. While it may be possible to construct a physical replica of a customer network, some customer networks can be large, complex, and expensive to implement, making replication prohibitive. As a result, customers generally do not replicate their entire network, but rather only test the device in which the configuration is to be changed. After the customer tests the configuration change in the lab environment, the change can be deployed in the production network environment. Since the testing performed in the lab environment typically does not correspond to the customer network where the device normally operates, changes to the device configurations may not operate in a manner suggested by the testing performed in the lab environment.
In another approach, configuration changes can be implemented in the production network. For example, in some situations, testing device configurations in a lab environment may not be feasible, such as, when configuration changes are deployed quickly to protect the customer network from an attack. Once the configuration change is implemented in the production network, the customer can monitor the network to determine if the configuration changes have an adverse effect on the network. However, such adverse effects may not be readily apparent and the customer may not detect any issues for some time.